Sunday, February 13, 2011

We've been learning about capacity, length, and weight. Last week we had "Camp Measurement" Activities. You can find all of these activities on TPT.

Fishing For the Right Unit of Capacity

Students used a magnetic fishing pool to "fish". Once they "caught" a fish they put it in the correct boat. For example, bathtub would go in the gallon boat. When studying capacity, we also traveled to the "Land of Gallon". This week we will be making Gallon Frogs! (My colleague found this awesome activity!)

My Own Can of Worms

Students had to go "digging" for worms to use for fishing. Without looking they dug through a pot of "dirt" (shredded brown paper) to find a worm. They would then place the worm in the correct can (the unit of length).

Filling up on Flies

This activity was by far the students' favorite. They used party blowers that had a piece of Velcro attached to the end to "catch" a fly. After the fly was caught, they put the fly onto the frog with the correct weight (tons, pounds, ounces).

The first five people to comment sharing activities for measurement (capacity, length, or weight) will receive this unit and the Land of Gallon FREE!!! :) (Be sure to include your name and email address in your comment!)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

This week we are learning about measurement. We are going to have Camp Measurement stations. I'll post pics and the lessons as soon as we're done. One of the activities they will be doing is the Land of Gallon! This activity helps the students to remember how many pints, quarts, and cups are in a gallon. Check out the Land of Gallon activity sheet at my TPT store!!! :)

Delay, delay, delay! Doing my delay dance right now! PA is super cold, so we have a 2 hour delay again tomorrow. We have state testing in about a month and we've had 6 snow days and TONS of delays. Starting to feel the PSSA push.

Anyway....here are just a few things that we have going on...

Since I started teaching, I've been trying to find a way to store the task cards and other games/cards that I've made. File folders didn't work, filing cabinet didn't work, etc., etc., etc. I finally found the perfect solution (for me anyway!). Sam's Club has these great 12x12 drawers. I labeled them with different skills. So far it has worked perfectly!

Third grade is the big year to start to learn the multiplication facts in our district. This is just a cup full of facts. I'll randomly pass the fact sticks out during transitions or extra free time. (Each fact is a different color so that I'm able to give more challenging ones to learners that need more of a challenge and less difficult ones to students that may struggle with multiplication. For example, all of the red sticks are 1s.)

The infamous Kiss Your Brain jar that I got from some terrific blog. (Sorry, I don't remember where... I've been to so many fantastic sites.)

I've just revamped the way I collect homework. i've always used the paper trays for homework. Typically the majority of the homework is due on Fridays. i've found that Friday morning homework collection was such a pain...so many papers, so little organization. This idea, although it is far from being a new idea, came from another teacher in my building. It has worked perfectly so far!

January Family Project - Each month I like to have the students complete a family project at home. This month was the missing mitten assignment (from ProTeacher). We used adjectives to describe mittens that were lost. The students had to then use the clues and other information in the descriptive paragraph to locate the missing mittens.

Another FAB ProTeacher idea....How to Blow a Bubble. I have to say that the students LOVED this project. They worked so hard and did a terrific job!

Every nine weeks we have a different AR incentive. Each student has an individual AR goal. Once he/she reaches his/her goal the reward is a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast. If they earn 5 points passed their goal they will get another incentive. I do the BONUS past the goal because typically the students reach their goal for the nine weeks and then stop. This encourages them to keep reading.

Each student keeps track of his/her own points. When he/she gets another whole AR point another marshmallow is added to the cup.

LOVE this.....POWER TOWER! I found this idea on another amazing blog. I made both sight word (fluency phrase) cups and multiplication cups. The students stack the cups as they read or answer the problem on the cup correctly. You can kinda make up your own rules, but I have them start over if they get a problem or word wrong. They also have to start over if they knock the tower over. This is quite a challenge and they LOVE it!

Vocab on the Move....during a unit review in reading we typically play this game. The students all have a sentence strip with a vocab word on it. They do not know what the word is though. They have to travel around the room to find a synonym, antonym, example, sentence, etc. The clues are used to determine the word on their heads.

Hope you found an idea or two that you can use! :)

UPDATE: Here are the links for a few of the documents that are listed on this page. I have searched my flash drive high and low for the labels that I put on the bins, but I can't find them anywhere. If I come across them I will post them.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Bio:My name is Tanya (like Tan - ya, not Ton - ya:). I am 26. I’ve been married to my best friend for 2 ½ years. We started dating way back when I was in 8th grade (he was in 9th). Believe it or not, we’ve been together ever since. Our college degrees took us to different universities hours apart, but here we are! We have a year old baby, Cali (okay, it’s a dog…but our baby none the less).

Cali and his cousin Nitanee

I grew up in Western PA and now live about an hour from my home town (Close to Pittsburgh, PA). Everyone in our neck of the woods bleeds black and yellow! I have one older brother who is going to be a daddy in June! I am so pumped to be an aunt!

My brother, his wife, and their dog Nittanee

I’ve been teaching four years, all of which were in third grade. I also have background and a degree in Special Ed. I have a passion for reading. I finished grad school last summer with a Masters in Reading and Reading Specialist Cert. In my free time (if there is ever such a thing) I LOVE to scrapbook, be crafty, garden, and take pics.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?

A: Hmm…I think I would be a realtor or interior designer! I love to decorate!

Q: What are your hobbies?A: Well, I’m not sure I have very many hobbies during the months of August to June! During the summer I do enjoy a good book, bargain shopping, going to garage sales, gardening, scrapbooking, and crafting.

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: From the time I was old enough to talk, I wanted to be a teacher. I used to play school for hours.

Q: What is your biggest fear?! A: FIRE (too much 911 when I was little)

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go? A: I love to vacation anywhere! I do prefer, the beach, but would like to go to Italy and Europe someday. We go to Myrtle Beach every summer and went to Riviera Maya on our Honeymoon.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

A: Live for today, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Q: What do you value most in others?

A: I value strong character, morals, and honesty.

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be? A: I guess I would have to say ambition.

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?

A: my grandma (she died when I was young and would love to know what she was like!)

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:My husband and I are attempting to check one or two things off our “bucket list” every year. This year we are running the Pittsburgh Marathon (okay…so he is running the marathon and I am only running a leg of it, but it’s still the marathon!) On our honeymoon we went ziplinning through the jungle and a few years ago we completed a triathlon.

Now it’s time for YOU to join the party!!!! Here’s what you need to do: Write a post titled “Meet The Teacher”. Start with a brief “biography” and then copy & paste the Q&A {using your answers, of course!} Copy the web address of your “Meet the Teacher” post and go to The First Grade Parade to link up! It would be GREAT if you could visit at least 3 other teachers…get to know a little bit about your fellow bloggers…and leave a comment!!!! Don't forget to grab a button when you link up!

About Me

I graduated from Edinboro University of PA with a BS in Elementary and Special Education and a Masters in Reading. After graduating I followed my dream to teach these amazing kids! I have taught 3rd grade for eleven years. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for ten years. I love spending time with my family, our son, daughter, and our dog Cali. I also enjoy scrapbooking, taking pictures, Pinterest crafting, blog hopping, creativity, imagination, and teaching 3rd grade!